Chains made of steel links can be susceptible to corrosion damage when exposed to a corrosive environment. It is widely known that mooring chains subjected to marine environments have multiple corrosion related problems. Such mooring chains are often replaced because of severe corrosion. This replacement is an expensive practice because of the lead time to procure new mooring chains as well as the difficult process in which old chains are replaced by new chain. Also, failure of the mooring chains from corrosion damage poses serious safety risk to the structures they moor.
One way that corrosion issues have been mitigated is by applying a coating such as thermally sprayed aluminum (TSA) to the surface of each link of the mooring chain. TSA sacrificially protects the steel substrate by acting as the anode in an electrochemical cell, while the steel becomes the cathode of the cell and is protected from corrosion. However, this process is costly, both in terms of the cost of the TSA coating and the difficulty in applying the coating. In order to apply the coating, slack must be introduced between the chain links so that the inter-grip areas of the links can be accessed and coated. Special handling is required in order to introduce the slack between the links, since each link can weigh up to 400 kg. This special handling requirement limits a mooring chain consumer to use chain manufacturers who have invested in the expensive handling equipment.
There exists a need for an economical solution to the after mentioned problems in methods for mitigating corrosion of heavy chains.